Showdown
by swanofroyalblood
Summary: Set after episode 3x15. Showdown with the Wicked Witch. Regina wants to face her on her own, Emma jumps in because she knows that together they're stronger. My own version of the showdown, written before the episode aired and before any sneak peeks were out. Swan Queen.


**A/N** * peeks in * Hi there! Okay, this is like... my first attempt on a fanfiction on here ever. I only posted one crossover thing once but it's been ages and yeah. I thought I'd give something SwanQueen-ish a try, after I got a drabble prompt on my Emma roleplay blog on Tumblr. This kinda became more than just a drabble, and I thought, why not share it with you guys on here :) I hope you enjoy, let someone who publishes something on here for the first time know what you think, will you? :3

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"I'm going to destroy her."

"Regina, you need to relax. I know we all want her gone, but we need to think clearly about it." Emma responded, trying to calm the other woman down.

"She made this personal. I can't just let her get away with this!"

"And we won't. She's responsible for Neal's death, remember that? She didn't just make it personal for you. She made it personal for all of us. But what we have to do now is think. We can't rush anything because otherwise she will win. Do you want her to win?"

At that, Regina just pursed her lips, averting her eyes, looking to the floor of the diner they were currently finding themselves in and taking a deep breath.

"She's right, you know." Snow, who had tried to stay quiet the whole time they had been at the diner to talk about how they could fight Zelena without getting killed. It almost seemed like the diner had become some sort of spot for them to meet and talk about situations like this. But Snow's comment almost got her a death glare from the former queen.

Just as Emma was about to say something again, the door to the diner swung open in a matter of maybe half a second, the small belle above the door ringing as if something was about to smash it. Everything inside the blonde tensed as she saw just who it was who just walked into the diner, a wicked smile on her face, dressed in nothing but black clothes and holding a… well it looked like a wand.

A wand? If the situation had been a different, Emma would have actually started to laugh. After everything she had seen of magic, she didn't think anyone except fairies would actually need a want to practice magic. But right now, she couldn't allow herself to think that way. She felt threatened in a place she always had liked to go when she had a few hours of spare time. And, if there was one thing she wanted to do right now, it was fighting the smirk off her face in an instant. Everyone in the diner looked terrified. Except two people.

Two women who both knew what they were fighting for. The memories and the life of their son. Of course Emma had considered just leaving Storybrooke with Henry again after all of this was over. But there was one thing she had learned over the past week. There was no escape for her. She would always be the savior. She would never be normal. And neither would Henry.

Glancing over to Regina, Emma could see that she thought the exact same thing. Still, it seemed like they both wanted to wait what would happen.

"Well, well, well. If this isn't just the perfect situation right here. The Wicked Witch meeting all the people of the town who finally found out just who cursed them."

The smirk was something that made Emma tremble with anger, having to pull herself together to not choke the life out of the woman who still thought she was invincible. "Save it," she said finally, addressing Zelena directly.

"Oh, my dear, I didn't come for you," she responded with a sweet smile, walking towards the blonde in slow, majestic steps. "This isn't about you. This is about my dear sweet little sister." And with that, she abruptly turned around, looking at Regina, who didn't seem the least bit impressed.

"You can spread your lies elsewhere, Witch. Let's get this over with." The mayor clearly didn't want to be part of anyone's game. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she took a step towards Zelena.

"Not so fast, not so fast. Meet me on the main street tonight. Say… sundown. And then you can try your very best to complete your little flight of fancy of destroying me."

Regina almost snorted. For her, she felt like in one of those Western movies — showdown on the main street, both armed with a gun, and whoever shot fist, won.

"This isn't the wild west," she said, looking straight into her eyes, a challenging glint shining in her own eyes.

"No, dear. This is the wicked west." Zelena shot back. She didn't even give the mayor time to respond. No, she just gave her one last smirk and with a flick of her hands, she disappeared into a cloud of green smoke.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked, as she was going after an enraged Regina who had just left the diner without looking at anyone again after Zelena had just dematerialized herself.

"Well what do you think I am doing? I'm going after her!" the brunette snapped, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Catching up with her by grasping her hand and pulling her back, Emma stopped right in front of her, facing her and looking into her eyes. A tingling sensation starting from the few inches of skin where she had just let go of the woman's hand ran through her whole body, leaving her mind spinning as she cleared her throat and tried to focus.

"No, you're not. Regina, no matter how powerful you think you are, you are not going to face her alone. She will expect you to come after her. Who knows, maybe she had a year in the Enchanted Forest to actually get to know your ways, maybe she wants you to come after her. What we need now, is a plan for tonight. We can't give her what she wants — which, if what she said is true, would be exactly this: you going after her."

"Emma, what she said is ridiculous. She can't be my sister. I don't have a sister. I have always been an only child." Though if Regina thought about it, how much hadn't her mother told her over the years? Maybe it was true after all.

"I know. Which is why I said if she's telling the truth. You can't let her get into your head," she told her, hoping she would see that she was right. If Regina went after her now, it definitely wouldn't end well. And only the mere thought hurt Emma in a way she would have never thought it would. Not in a way that hurt when she thought about Henry becoming one of Zelena's victims — but in a different kind of way. Not that that was any better, though.

Finally, the brunette seemed to see that she was right.

"Fine. Then what do you suggest, savior?" she asked, still not completely able to calm down from what had just happened inside the diner.

"I say we try to figure out a plan. We need to think of something. We need to figure out where Henry will be tonight and we need to think about what could happen if we fail." Emma tried to reason, seemingly succeeding, since she saw the brunette nodding approvingly.

Sundown. Mainstreet. Storybrooke, Maine. Ruby, as well as the Blue Fairy and Nova had agreed to watch over Henry in the back of the diner while almost everybody else who had heard about what had happened, had come together on Mainstreet. Emma didn't know if they just wanted to watch what was happening or if they actually wanted to help, but what she did know, was that when it really came down to it, none of them would really be able to defend themselves. But who was she to tell them anything? Of course she could just shout that everyone should go home, but even her own mother hadn't wanted to stay home, and she was pregnant.

A sigh left the blonde. Maybe she got her stubbornness from her.

Glancing over to Regina, who was obviously pretty tense, considering what was about to happen, she furrowed her brows. She didn't like the fact that the Wicked Witch wanted something from Regina. Nobody knew what it was, but it obviously wasn't good. Walking over to the brunette, she gave her a small, encouraging smile.

"Are you okay?"

Regina only nodded, refusing to say anything, but Emma could see that she was far from okay.

"We'll get through this, okay? Trust me."

The mayor just nodded again.

Emma sighed. "Look, if you're worried about the whole sister thing, I'm sure we can find out more about that, but for now, we need to concentrate on how to defeat her."

Another nod, and Emma found it might be the best if she just took a step back. Close enough to step in, in case something unpredictable happened. No one knew what would actually happen, least of all Regina.

Just when Emma turned around for one brief moment, she heard something that could be best described as some kind of collective gasping. And just as she had thought, Zelena had just appeared just in front of Regina, wearing the same black gown she had also worn this afternoon, only that now, she also wore green leather gloves. How fitting. Green gloves for the Wicked Witch and red gloves for the Evil queen.

For a moment, Emma just watched the whole scenario. Jaw tensed, her eyes focused on the scene that was happening in front of her. Regina and Zelena bantered like there was no tomorrow, but Emma could see that that definitely wouldn't be the only thing that would happen. And she was right. As soon as the Witch had obviously grown bored with what they did, she lifted her hand as if she wanted to lay her fingers around the brunette's neck, yet it only seemed like an invisible force that started choking the woman. Emma had to suppress a panicked gasp. She wanted to do something, anything, and she had the feeling that if she did something, it would only be Regina's death sentence.

Finally, when it got too much, Rumplestitskin took a step forward, much to Emma's surprise. "That's enough, Zelena." he told her and it almost seemed like he was fighting against something. Whatever it was, it seemed like it was working. Just not in the way Emma had hoped it would. With one movement of her arm, the witch almost tossed Regina up, right through the clock of the clock tower.

For a brief second, Emma hesitated. But what was it she had to lose? Nothing. And she ran. She ran towards the entrance and up the stairs, only to find Regina lying on the floor next to the broken glass clock where she had landed.

"Regina!"

She was with her in an instant, kneeling down next to her. "Can you move?" she asked her, her expression changing from worried to desperate. Her brows furrowed, small drops of sweat were visible on the blonde's forehead. "Please tell me you can move."

Weakly, the brunette nodded as she tried to up, Emma's hand grasping her shoulder for support. "I have been through worse," she continued, yet another groan leaving her as she sat up completely.

A relieved sigh left the blonde as she watched her. Maybe it hadn't been that worse. Still, she didn't want to take any chances. "Regina, maybe you alone are not strong enough to face her on your own." she remarked softly, watching the other woman carefully.

"What are you suggesting?"

"I'm saying that we could, you know, try it together," the savior said, not sure how the woman would react, though she expected her to be okay with the suggestion.

"No." she eventually responded.

"But..."

"I said no!" Regina snapped, getting up from the ground, grimacing painfully as she did so. She almost glared at the blonde as she continued. "I have to do this on my own. She made this personal. She made it perfectly clear that she wants me. If she wants me, she can have me."

"Regina..."

"Don't!" she almost shouted at her.

It hurt the blonde to see her like this. Did she really think she was alone on this? Why didn't she see that she wasn't alone? That she hadn't been alone all along? Maybe Henry didn't remember her, but... Of course it had been a year, of course she had forgotten her, but Emma could still remember exactly who she had seen right after she had seen Henry when she had gotten her memories back. It hadn't been her parents, no. It hadn't been Hook or Neal. It hadn't been Pan or even Storybrooke. No. It had been Regina. The mayor of Storybrooke, the Evil Queen, the woman who had raised her son and had gotten under her skin from the moment she had entered this town.

And now, it broke her heart to see that Regina thought she had to face this on her own.

"Please..." she tried again.

"Why? Why do you care, Emma? Henry doesn't even remember me. There wouldn't even be a difference if I can't win this fight because you could return to New York with him and you could continue your happy life! He doesn't remember me, and I have nothing. Every day, I wake up and I am empty! Why do you care?"

Regina wanted to scream at her. She wanted to scream that she wanted her to keep her from going down there again, she wanted her to tell her that she wouldn't face her on her own. That she didn't only care because of Henry, but that she cared because she cared. Because she maybe had gotten to like this sort of mutual caring they had going on since they had gotten back from Neverland, and now after Emma had her memories back again. But what could she expect from the savior? From the daughter of the two idiots who were just as transparent. Too ignorant to see what was right in front of them.

But whatever she had wanted or expected, it certainly wasn't what was happening at this exact moment.

Wide eyes were watching the savior as she moved closer, a dangerous glint in her eyes as she step after step reduced the distance between them. Locking eyes, both women stared at one another as Emma kept moving closer. Both knew that the other would be too proud to move away. "We have had this game going on, Regina." Emma finally said. "We have played this so many times. You say yes. I say no. Or even the other way around. You say stop and I just keep going. We have played this game before. And we both know it won't stop. But there is also one thing we both know."

Stopping, she finally stayed where she were — only standing a few inches away from the woman. Personal space had never been something they had paid much attention to. It practically wasn't existent. There had been a lot of those moments where they had just stared at one another, enraged. Wanting to just rip away the ground the other was standing on. But rarely had it been a moment like this. A moment where both women only wanted to understand what was going on. Inside of them and between them.

Tension.

Wanting.

Longing.

Regina just stared at her, unable to say anything. But the gaze Emma was watching her with left her blood boiling, her cheeks grow hot and her heart pounding in her chest. For the first time, Emma's expression wasn't something she could read and it made her nervous. But it wasn't a bad nervous. It was a kind of nervous she had only once had before.

Right now, neither woman felt like they were controlling the situation. And finally, when Emma leaned in a bit, she could almost hear the way Regina stopped breathing, yet she didn't move away. Instead, she closed the distance between them until eventually soft lips met for the first time in a hungry kiss.

Like an explosion, a shock wave went through both of them, having them inhale deeply. Emma's hands slowly moved up Regina's arms, over her shoulders to the back of her neck, wanting to hold her in place. Even though it would just be for this short moment, she wanted to show her that she cared. Feeling the other woman's arms slide around her waist to pull her close, she exhaled softly. She wanted to show her that she wasn't alone. That no matter what happened, she would never be alone. And she showed her with every single movement of her lips, with every soft movement of her tongue against Regina's before the brunette pulled away, as if Emma had just turned into some sort of flying monkey.

"Regina?"

No reaction. The only thing she could hear was a loud scream that was coming from the mainstreet. Ignoring it, she tried again.

"Regina? Are you alright?"

The other woman's lips parted in disbelief, a gasp leaving her as she shook her head as if she was trying to push a thought away, before looking into Emma's eyes.

"I think we just broke the curse."


End file.
